The invention relates to a pressure sensitive mouth piece and more particularly to a pressure sensitive mouth piece that emits audible tones or other sensory stimuli to alert the wearer that he is grinding his teeth.
One of the destructive tendencies that people have with regard to their teeth is a tendency to unconsciously clench or brux their teeth, especially while they sleep. This clenching or bruxing action is damaging, not only to the teeth themselves, but also to the supporting structure of the teeth (both the hard, bony material and the soft tissue) in the mouth. Patients who have this tendency suffer headaches, sore jaws, and stiff necks, not to mention the potentially severe damage to their teeth and supporting structure.
The conventional solution is for a dentist to custom fit a bite guard that is worn over either the upper or lower teeth. The bite guard is molded from a plastic material after the dentist makes an impression of the patient's teeth. However, the bite guard does not actually prevent the patient from grinding his teeth. All the bite guard does is act as a physical separation between the patient's upper and lower teeth, When the patient clenches or bruxes his teeth, the teeth grind on the surface of the bite guard rather than directly, on the opposed teeth.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a pressure sensitive mouth piece that not only provides a physical separation between the patient's upper teeth and lower teeth but also emits an audible tone to alert the patient whenever he engages in the act of clenching or bruxing his teeth.
It is a feature of the present invention that a mouth piece is comprised of a bite guard with a sensing unit that involves a pressure detector that is activated by the act of the patient clenching or bruxing his teeth. The activation of the pressure detector closes a circuit which sends current from a battery to an integrated circuit which causes an audible tone to be emitted from a speaker thereby alerting the patient that teeth clenching or bruxing is occurring. The patient then becomes aware that he is clenching or bruxing and he can consciously retrain himself to stop. The pressure detector, battery, integrated circuit and speaker are all mounted on or incorporated into the bite guard to be worn inside the patient's mouth.
It is another feature of the present invention that a mouth piece is comprised of a bite guard and a mechanical "clicker" that emits mechanically an audible signal when a patient clenches or bruxes his teeth.
It is an advantage of the present invention that, when the patient begins to grind his teeth, an audible signal is emitted from a location quite close to the patient's ear. This signal will alert the patient that he is grinding his teeth, even if such teeth grinding were being done subconsciously by the patient. If the teeth grinding is being done while the patient is asleep, the audible tone will be loud enough to awaken the patient so he can stop grinding his teeth.